


Does This Make Me Look Fat?

by Littlebluejay_hidingpeanuts



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:27:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22422565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Littlebluejay_hidingpeanuts/pseuds/Littlebluejay_hidingpeanuts
Summary: Essay on the history of beauty.





	Does This Make Me Look Fat?

What is beauty in its most basic, primal definition? Beauty is said to be “the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc)” (Dictionary.com). Beauty is seen in quite a different light all over the globe. Europeans and Americans have the more traditional youthful, skinny type beauty. Each culture views beauty as something women must obtain. No one is born with perfect beauty—everyone must do something to be better or else they feel as if they have failed. Every woman believes that they are not quite as beautiful as they would be, if they changed some aspect of themselves. Modern culture keeps women from ever achieving that perfect state of being beautiful because the true essence of beauty is always being modified. Women never have a deep, mindful satisfaction that comes from acceptance. There is never any physical trophy to be won in the gain of beauty. Bodies are like time; they warp and are molded into a constantly moving and growing organism. Yet women  must obtain beauty and hold onto it for all time or else all is lost. 

The causes for this catastrophe, this perspective that the American woman has adopted, started long ago when humans first began to adorn themselves with decoration. Few women, out of the whole population, have the exact combination of genes, which make them so very pleasing to the eye or gave these women all the aspects, which are thought of as the best. Men find women that show off those aspects which make them a woman: the “fittest” for survival and child baring, to be the most desirable. This desire they create gave the women power, status and probably a feeling of happiness and triumph over the men and other women. Other women, in the group, saw this happening and strove to change themselves so that they might imitate those few “beautiful” women. Hopefully this would even the playing field and give every woman status, power, and self-confidence. Every woman became part of an on-going power-struggle. Even those first women who were naturally “beautiful” no longer felt they were beautiful enough. The battle has continued since the dawn of man. No woman can ever feel beautiful without having to strive to be even more beautiful. 

In recent times, beauty is created by pain and icky-ness. In the 1800s, Queen Victoria led a reverse in the use of make-up and other decorations for females. Make-up was “improper,  vulgar , and acceptable only for use by  actor s” (Cosmetics). This led to homemade or illegally made cosmetics. Women were blinded; tragically some became deformed, and even died from poisoning. Lead was used to whiten their faces and was absorbed through the skin (Cosmetics). Chemicals in mascara led to blindness (Cosmetics). In the 1900s, when TB swept the world, those with the illness were pale. Soon it became chic to look pale and sick (because all trends are adopted from the stupidest occurrences). Belladonna is the most toxic plant in the Western Hemisphere (Atropa belladonna). Belladonna drops, when placed in the eyes, gave girls a dreamy look (Makeup in the 1900s). Arsenic and vinegar were ingested to make the skin look as pale as possible (Makeup in the 1900s). In the 1970s and ‘80s, it was fashionable to look as thin and bronzed as possible. They oiled and baked themselves in the sun; at the risk of getting skin cancer in order to have a golden sheen to their skin. Such deep sun tanning has gone out of style as skin cancer grew to be a real problem. Women hurt themselves when they use questionable, not FDA-approved diet pills, and adopt highly dangerous eating habits. And who are girls seeing every day on TV and in magazines? Models: the women who are thinner than 98% of American women (National Eating Disorders Association). It is not a good idea to hold models in the esteem of role models, nor is it a good idea to simply live with obesity. Forty billion dollars are spent each year on dieting and drugs (National Eating Disorders Association). Mortality rate for women with an eating disorder is twelve times higher than all other leading causes of death (National Eating Disorders Association). Women are literally killing themselves for beauty. Cosmetic surgery is the new fad. Botox, face-lifts, and liposuction artificially make a person look younger and healthier without really being so. It is a “just slice, suck, and stab” mentality. Women no longer strive for momentary beauty, but everlasting beauty. People forget that just because bodies look young they still run out of steam. If something is not done to help change the way the European and American cultures view beauty, it will just get worse. 

The consequences of beauty began centuries ago and will carry on for centuries more. One day, women will achieve the highest mortality rate with eating disorders. Depression is another illness that occurs in women who just cannot seem to lose five more pounds. Fashion and popularity have always been fickle. All the women who are destroying themselves now with weight loss and drugs will start an entirely new punishment for themselves like tying their hair up into tight buns while wearing impossibly waist-ed dresses. Instead of being made of blood and bone, the materials holding women’s bodies together will be plastic and chemicals. Divorce rates will skyrocket. Abortions will increase because no one wants those ugly stretch marks or the hell of a child. Maybe one day it will all get so crazy that people will just stop and relax. 

One cannot simply be born with beauty. Beauty is achieved through pain and sometimes death. Beauty is won by a perseverance to fulfill one’s own happiness. Only one’s self can make one happy. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” No one can make you feel unhappy without your consent. Beauty does not necessarily have to be achieved. Women do not have to strive for it. Just being one’s self can win beauty. 

Works Cited

“Atropa belladonna.”  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . 5 Mar. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belladonna>. 

“Beauty.”  Dictionary.com. 5 Mar. 2008 < [ http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/beauty ](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/beauty) >.

“Cosmetics.”  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . 5 Mar. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmetics>. 

“Makeup in the 1900s.”  About.com . 5 Mar. 2008 <http://beauty.about.com/cs/1900beauty/p/00makeup.htm>. 

National Eating Disorders Association. “Statistics: Eating Disorders and Their Precursors.” National Eating Disorders Association. 5 Mar. 2008 <http://www.sc.edu/healthycarolina/pdf/facstaffstu/eatingdisorders/EatingDisorder Statistics.pdf>.


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